“THE WORLD IS WATCHING what we do here.”

As usual of late, I have no proper illustration for the following without abusing The Associated Press, which is not designed for non-profit use. But what is provided here above should be adequate to introduce a Free Press of long standing, the cause of justice — and the self-serving stupidity of the general public. The Rev. Damon’s entire address will be found as an appendix to my first book of local history in 2000.

Now, 131 years later than the cornerstone dedication, Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming told members of her own party: “There will come a day when President Trump is gone. But your dishonor will remain.” She later stated that “The sacred obligation to defend this peaceful transfer of power has been honored by every American president — except one.”

Cheney spoke June 9 as vice chairwoman of the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The committee began laying out, over television, in shocking and meticulous detail, the extent of former president Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election and keep himself in office.

As we follow the egocentric efforts of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, etc., it is the party’s dishonor and dishonesty at the highest level that was called to account by Cheney and others in the televised presentations of detail that was to be continued Monday of this week.

So far collected by the committee is, among other things, information that Trump endorsed the hanging of his own vice-president Mike Pence.

Vague responses such as “fake news,” and Fox News in general, still don’t cut the mustard in response.

As Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss and chairman of the Select Committee, said, “Donald Trump was at the center of this controversy . . . ultimately, Donald Trump, President of the United States, spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down the Capitol and subvert American democracy . . . Our Democracy remains in danger . . . Jan. 6 and the lies that led to insurrection have put two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk. The world is watching what we do here.”

I’ve voted for a variety of presidents since turning 21 back in 1950, but none of them have been Republicans for quite some time. Probably my favorite GOP member of all time was Governor/Senator Dan Evans — still with us as far as I know, although he’s several years older (now 96) than I. I didn’t like the take-over activities of Vice President Dick Cheney under George W. Bush — but I really like his daughter Liz. Hopefully, she will help manage to take the GOP back in the proper direction.

Meanwhile, I am continually amazed at the resemblance of some of the comments of John Damon in 1891 to the remarks all these years later by Liz Cheney and other members of the Select Committee. The presentations of the Committee should be readily available on line, including Monday disclosures I will not have time to deal with here.

Damon said in 1891: “The judicial history of this past period has been impressive of all forms of impersonation, from feeble vacillation to sturdy firmness; from sterling personal integrity selected by a sense of patriotism to a criminal shielded from the just consequences of deliberate and premeditated assassination, to wear the sullied ermine for political ends. How it behooves the present generation to care for its rights! Ever remembering that its judiciary is, in ll that makes it valuable and important in the economy of government, the highest and best expression of the individual verdicts of the citizen at the polls.

“If then, the halls of justice and equity are but the offices of those who can more or less in direction secure their own elevation at the hands of politicians, how important that the people keep the reins in their own hands that they may not be made merchandise of, or verdicts be obtained by the highest bidder, without regard in the merit in the controversy. As no private injury may be inflicted without a public detriment, that man who knowingly permits neighbors to suffer without raising his voice in protest, is untrue to the best interests of society, and becomes, passively at least, party to the wrong which his fearless and timely exposure could have prevented.”